All the six candidates of the ruling Samajwadi Party filed their nominations on the opening day of the filing papers for the biennial Rajya Sabha polls in the State on Monday.
After offering her ticket to any other better deserving candidate in the Party, senior minister Azam Khan’s wife Tanzeen Fatima finally went ahead with the decision of the Parliamentary Board and filed her nomination along with five other leaders, including Ram Gopal Yadav, Neeraj Shekhar, Chandrapal Singh Yadav, Ravi Prakash Verma and Javed Ali Khan. The candidates filed their nominations in two sets each before returning officer and principal secretary (assembly) Pradeep Kumar Dubey, on Monday morning. Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav along with several of his cabinet colleagues were present during the filing of the papers.
Earlier, notification for the election to 10 Rajya Sabha seats was issued putting November 10 as the last date for filing of the nominations. Scrutiny of the papers would be done on the next day and candidates can withdraw their nominations till November 13. If required, polling will be held on November 20 and counting of votes on the same day.
At present ruling SP has a strength of 231 out of 403 in the legislative Assembly which facilitates the Party to sent at least half a dozen Party leaders to the Rajya Sabha. Meanwhile, after filing nomination, Ram Gopal, while talking to media persons claimed that now after Congress and BJP, SP would be the largest party in the Rajya Sabha.